Coral Sand

[alan3513]

I'm setting up a 5ft cichlid tank and plan to use coral sand. eBay has loads of different grain sizes, does it matter what size the grains are or is it down to personal choice. The fish i plan to keep are, Labidochromis caeruleus, altolamprologus compressiceps and Pseudotropheus acei, Thanks, Alan.

 

[elisew]

It depends on the ph of your water, you don`t need to use coral sand unless it`s to buffer/raise your ph. Coral sand is known to irritate the gills of some cichlids so a lot of people use sand in the tank and crushed oyster shell in the filter area in a sperate net bag (for example).

The compressicep is a very calm and peaceful Tanganyikan species and completely different to the yellow labs (Labidochromis caeruleus) and the acei which are the malawi/mbuna species. The comp and the others should not be kept together in the same tank

 

[fishguy2727]

I wouldn't use coral sand as a substrate. If you need to raise the pH/KH (a good idea with rift lake cichlids) a more effective method is to keep a bag of crushed coral in the filter like it is carbon.

The sand I use is Estes' Ultra Reef. The dumb part is that it is not a 'true marine sand' since it is not calcium based. But it is inert and comes in multiple colors. I mix the black and white together.

 

[alan3513]

Thanks for the replies. The sand was to raise the ph. My water is around 7 and very soft. i cant put crushed coral in my filter as im running large sponge filters off an air system and theres nowhere for it to go. thanks again, Alan.

 

[rifty]

if you didnt want crushed coral as the buffer what sort of rock did you intend to use as some will do the same jobs too

 

[bullit]

I have coral sand but i use bicarb of soda to hit 8.2. Its cheap plus its pretty simple.

 

[jonnyuk]

i use tuffa rock to buffer my ph, i'm changing my tuffa rock to slate very soon so will have lots of this stuff for sale, not everywhere sells it but if you can source some its well worth it.

i have since rescaped my tank but you get an idea for the kinda rock it is